Stories

The union representing state troopers and game wardens has reached an agreement with the state aimed at saving 43 jobs, Gov. Chet Culver announced Tuesday.

Moderate- and low-income Iowans pay a greater share of their income in state and local taxes than the rich do, according to a new report from two non-partisan research organizations.

As GOP gubernatorial hopefuls try to draw distinctions from their Republican rivals, the Iowa Democratic Party continues to co-opt their critiques with the hope of weakening potential challengers to incumbent Gov. Chet Culver.
The latest attack was delivered in Dubuque by state Rep. Chris Rants against former Gov. Terry Branstad. Rants said he spoke earlier in [...]

The Des Moines Register showered more poll numbers on readers today, and the news is better for Democrats than it was over the weekend.
Though each Iowan seems to have his or her own ideas for how money should be cut from the budget, few blame the Democrats for overspending on their key priorities over the [...]

More than 100 employees within the Iowa Judicial Branch will soon be without employment, and an additional 100 currently vacant positions will not be filled, as the department makes deeper cuts in an attempt to reduce its operating expenses for the current fiscal year.

Iowa’s largest union has reached a tentative agreement with the state, avoiding 479 layoffs that could have resulted from Gov. Chet Culver’s 10 percent budget cut ordered last month, which many feared would impact public safety.

Iowa should privatize its prison system in order to alleviate budget problems, a conservative watchdog group said Monday.
Ed Failor Jr., president of Iowans for Tax Relief, said the privatization of Iowa’s prisons would result in many positive benefits, from making communities safer to minimizing inefficiencies. But the biggest benefit would be cost savings, he said.

Two Republican legislators and the state’s largest labor union are calling on the University of Iowa to cancel a planned trip to the Disney Institute in Orlando, Fla., saying the price tag is too high at a time when the state is facing huge budget deficits.

Gov. Chet Culver’s re-election campaign announced Tuesday it was launching its second television advertisement.
The ad will air in the Des Moines and Cedar Rapids markets as well as some cable around the state. It is titled “Stronger Than Ever” and focuses on the governor’s response to last year’s flooding and to the state’s economic downturn.

In order for Iowa to become the “economic engine of the Midwest,” the Hawkeye State should phase out its income tax, according to GOP gubernatorial hopeful Christian Fong.
It’s a theme he’s returned to repeatedly over the last few weeks, first in a series of town halls, then in a blog post on the conservative Hawkeye [...]